Why We March By William Lohier Poem by David Bowden

March 24th.
One month and ten days after the deadliest high school shooting in American history.
Students across the country marched for stricter gun laws.
The same day, the NRA releases a video entitled ‘A march for their lies'
Telling Stoneman Douglas students that if their classmates had not been shot,
No one would know their names.
And the question becomes,
Why do we march?
When school shootings have become an American promise,
When the Second Amendment chokes bullets into bodies,
We were not taught that students could become soldiers at any time
‘A well-regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State,
The right of the people to keep and bear arms,
Shall not be infringed.'
We march because those words are worth more than our lives.
Because those who defend them do not know our names,
How our mamas know to hold us close when pistols rejoice in the night
Like martyrdom is the best some of us can expect in life.
We march because I no longer feel safe in school.
Because the other day we had a lockdown drill,
And as my back was pressed up against the wall,
I was waiting for the shots to ring out.
Blunt like the promise of freedom,
The way politicians take NRA money and hand us back bodies.
We were never taught the sound of gunshots.
We have never been asked to write a eulogy.
We march because instead of marching
I want to be worrying about grades,
And homework,
And tests,
And it's frustrating, you know
That this poem sounds like an ode to assault rifles ‘cause somewhere in America,
Someone says they love their guns
And my body becomes a false prophecy.
Becomes a canvas,
Dripping police siren red, white, and blue,
Red, white, blue
‘Cause it's your guns that got Nay Nay,
That got Trayvon,
That got Renisha and I repeat a prayer in my head,
‘Hands up, don't shoot,
Hands up, don't shoot.'
We march because I learned long before high school to fear bullets.
Before Columbine,
Before Sandy Hook,
Before Stoneman Douglas.
We are not marching to take away your guns,
We are marching for our lives.
So watch us,
Because there is power in our footsteps.
And the streets will ring with it,
Long after we are gone.

Poem Written by William Lohier